Economic Reserves Now Equivalent to Only Two Years UK Energy Consumption

Abstract

British Coal had a policy of keeping its coal reserves confidential. With the threat of privatisation and coincidentally, substantial loss of markets, British Coal provided reserves estimates to the John T. Boyd Company and the UK DTI published the figures in the Boyd report. The total reserves in British Coal's pits were 620.5 million tonnes at the end of 1992 which is equivalent to two years UK energy consumption.

There are large quantities of coal in place (resources) in the UK. Pits are being closed because the coal in those pits cannot be produced economically. When a pit is closed, any remaining reserves would be reclassified as resources because of the unacceptably high capital cost of reopening the pit or opening a new one.